Alexander Gauland of the right-wing Different for Germany (AfD) speaks throughout his election speech as co-chairman in the course of the AfD federal congress on the Hannover Congress Centrum (HCC) on December 2, 2017 in Hanover, Germany.

Members of the anti-immigrant Different for Germany (AfD) social gathering elected a right-wing nationalist to be their co-leader on Saturday, signalling a doable toughening of tone earlier than regional votes subsequent 12 months.

A celebration congress selected Alexander Gauland – who as soon as defended an AfD member who had stated historical past needs to be rewritten to deal with German victims of World Conflict Two – to return to the submit he had held till 2015.

As members deliberated, hundreds of anti-AfD protesters marched exterior carrying placards studying “Hanover in opposition to Nazis” and “Stand as much as racism”.

Earlier, riot police fired water cannon at dozens of protesters who blocked a highway resulting in the congress, underlining the divisive affect the social gathering has had because it entered the Bundestag decrease home for the primary time in a Sept. 24 election.

The social gathering’s incumbent chief Jorg Meuthen – seen as a relative average within the motion – received sufficient votes to maintain his submit.

However in a vote that dragged into the night, he was joined as co-leader by Gauland, who ran for the submit on the final minute after one other candidate seen as a average, Georg Pazderski, didn’t win sufficient votes.